GENEVA.- Rich countries have a surplus of at least 1.2 billion vaccines against COVID-19 and despite this, many continue to close contracts with pharmaceutical companies to receive more doses in the coming months, which hinders efforts in favor of access equitable to these products, which remain out of reach of a good part of the world population.
“There are at least 1.2 billion dose surpluses in rich countries, which could be well used. We ask those countries to exchange their places in the production lines with COVAX and the African Union so that we can finally access the doses that correspond to the orders we have made, ”the director responsible for Countries and Affairs told Efe. Governmental of the alliance for GAVI vaccines, Santiago Cornejo.
COVAX is the mechanism created by the World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with GAVI in April 2020, when vaccine trials were just beginning, but it was already clear that once countries with the capacity to negotiate and for payment they would monopolize them and leave very little for the rest of the world.
What the WHO feared happened and while developed countries have stored hundreds of millions of vaccines and begin to offer one after another a third dose to their populations, only 5.8 percent of the population of Africa has received the first, according to the data latest that GAVI handles.
How to solve the problem?
Next week the high-level segment of the UN General Assembly will be held in New York and its president, the Maldivian ambassador, Abdullah Shahid, said he plans to convene a meeting with leaders and experts to discuss how to close the gap in access to vaccines.
However, all eyes are on a summit that the president of the United States, Joe Biden, would be preparing next week with other leaders who will be in his country for the UN meeting.
According to leaks, Biden would present at the summit a series of very ambitious goals to extend vaccination to 70 percent of the world’s population within a year.
Experts who are immersed in the day-to-day management and logistics to try to get vaccines to the most neglected countries believe that if massive donations and the lifting of the ban that some countries have imposed on the export of vaccines and of some of its ingredients, part of the problem could be solved.
For a more complete solution, it would also be necessary for pharmaceutical companies to agree to prioritize COVAX orders over agreements with countries that offer to pay more for vaccines.
“Among the highest priorities is to end all export bans, in particular that of the Government of India to its producers and to persuade manufacturers to increase their deliveries to COVAX and the African Union, and not to put them aside for other more contracts. lucrative, ”explained Cornejo.
Sufficient production, but uneven distribution
Scientists assure that inequality in access to vaccines is one of the main causes of the continuous appearance of variants of the coronavirus that are more contagious and in certain cases can cause a more severe disease.
Pharmaceuticals have made public that so far they have produced about 8 billion doses of vaccines, which will reach 12 billion by the end of the year and 24 billion by mid-2022.
“The question we should ask producers and donors is where are those doses and how can they reach the people who need them?” Said the COVAX executive.
Part of the answer lies in the orders that several rich countries continue to pass, such as the United States, which last July closed a new agreement with Pfizer / BioNTech for the purchase of an additional 200 million doses that it will receive between October and April.
They are added to the 500 million that it has already bought from this same company, and from other agreements with Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
Goal setting
COVAX has distributed 280 million doses to 141 countries, of which 76 million have gone to Africa and about 45 million to Latin America and the Caribbean, where 58 percent of the population has received a dose and 35 percent is completely vaccinated, although here the problem of the disparity between one country and another is repeated.
Given all the difficulties that have arisen for a fair vaccination worldwide, COVAX has recognized that it will not be able to deliver the 2 billion doses it had projected to developing countries this year.
The program indicated that it will only have 1.4 billion, which has reduced its goal of guaranteeing the immunization of 40 percent of the population of all the poorest countries before the end of 2021.
The current target is 20 percent, which would cover all the most vulnerable groups.
“The number of doses delivered increases each week, but success will depend on several factors. If export bans are not lifted, if pharmaceutical companies do not fulfill their promises to support COVAX and continue to serve a small part of the world, that percentage will be at risk ”, warned Cornejo.
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